[Linux-aus] Should we change? (Was: Re: Should we change? Yes. To change is to grow.)

[Patrick Elliott-Brennan]

On 1 May 2012 08:50, Arjen Lentz wrote:
> Hi Patrick, all
>
> Market research (and focus groups, etc) tend to yield what you want them to yield. The main beneficiaries are the people doing the research.

Hi Arjen. Thanks for the post.

Without wishing to derail the whole discussion, or re-route it somewhere else:

Sure there are people who do things poorly or with cynical intent.
I've seen that happen too. Been on the end of it a number of times.
However, that's the result of  the poor attitude of those involved in
the design and implementation.

I'm suggesting a more professional, social research approach.

Having run a number of focus groups and conducted research (I can't
speak for the private business industry and thus there may well be
cynical exploitation of some form there) as well as having read a lot
of research, I can't say I agree with your skepticism.

SNIPPITY snip.

> In our case, the purpose of changing focus or rebranding would be to attract new groups of people and companies (right?). There are some general things that a pretty obvious, some of which have already been discussed here.
> "Free" is ambiguous",

Yup

>"Libre" requires additional linguistic understanding and generally more clarification.

Yup. Though it doesn't preclude it's use.

>While "Open Source" as a term has its issues and companies have abused it, it's served us extremely well.

This has the same problem as Libre in my mind. What on earth does that
mean to people until it's explained?

>Those are all useful things to keep in mind.

Yup.

I agree with quite a few of your points. None of it precludes proper
research being done.

We have some claims from personal experience here. I'm not denying the
individuals experiences. This doesn't necessarily make a good reason
for change.

We have the additional issues here too. Some people speak up. Others
don't. Regardless of whether we have more voices on the list 'for' or
'against' or 'inbetween' (like I am now) change doesn't actually mean
it's a good idea.

My query is whether LA is in a position to conduct some reasonable
research, even if this is in the form of a meta analysis of existing
material. Otherwise this is pretty much a 'blind' decision.